Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

OK, thanks.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

Somehow I feel sorry that I can't help you much with this MP4/AAC format, but it is just not so easy. I think it is better to do at least one job good (considering the limited amount of free time I have). And MPlayer for maemo is specifically optimized for mpeg4 video + mp3 audio, other codecs may work fine, but some are surely less optimal.

I keep telling, anybody can try to do optimizations for various video/audio codecs, improve GUI and other features. I will be more than happy to integrate these changes into next builds of MPlayer compiled for maemo.

Well, it's a bit of excuse, but as long as these MP4 files can be played with the standard Nokia video player, it should not be a big issue.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

No problem Serge. I understand it is not a big priority. I'm fine with using multiple media players. I'll try converting my next videos with MP3 audio instead of AAC. I'm actually more concerned about getting my videos larger than a 320x280 format. I believe MPlayer does support up to 640x480?

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

OK, I re-converted the video I had problems with using the Media Converter for 770/n800 and converted it to n800 Super High Quality 800x480 and then used MPlayer r15 to play it. It played fine. One little hiccup where the video froze and the audio was still playing. I paused and played it again and the video caught up and it did not seem to happen again. I re-played the video to that same spot and the video played fine with no video freeze the second time. So looks like MPlayer r15 is working fine in my n800.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

Do you have virtual memory enabled? I noticed discernable differences in Mplayer with (and without) virtual memory.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

mplayer_1.0rc1-maemo.16 was released:
* Fix for aspect ratio problems on N800 for windowed video playback with xv video driver
* Workaround to prevent tearing and poor performance bug on N800 for 16:9 video files (https://maemo.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1281)
* Use floating point AAC decoder on N800 in order to support "Main" and "Sample-Rate Scalable" profiles. Problem with AAC codec was reported at http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ead.php?t=6061

The changes in this build primarily target N800 video output performance. In particular, tearing and slow performance for widescreen videos was solved.

Another quite noticeable performance improvement (20% improvement observed on Nokia_N800.avi video clip, for other files it may vary) requires installing xserver package with a patch for ARMv6 optimized color format conversion, two alternative links for download can be found here: http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-dev...ay/010058.html
Keep in mind that xserver is a critical system package and if anything gets wrong with it, you will probably have to reflash. Everything works fine for me, but you have been warned. Anyway, if you have videos which played not very smoothly before, you can try to check them now. If you like the results, don't forget to vote for https://maemo.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1278 (it would be nice to ensure that this optimization gets officially included into the next version of N800 firmware) :)

edit: Forgot to mention that optimized xserver will also improve performance for built-in video player and canola.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

I wasn't able to install either of the xserver packages you linked to. I downloaded the .debs in opera and tried double clicking on them in file manager to launch the install in application manager. I got some sort of incompatible package error. Do I need to install these with dpkg -i or something? I was a bit reluctant to force the install without further confirmation.

Thanks!

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

Yes, this package is a part of N800 system, so Nokia ensured that it can't be freely installed/upgraded by application manager for users safety. You really need to install it with 'dpkg -i packagename.deb' as root.

Benchmarking to compare performance can be done by running 'mplayer -benchmark -quiet -endpos ? somevideo.avi' from xterm, where '?' is the length in seconds of the initial fragment of video file to play for collecting statistics. It will show a summary about cpu usage for decoding, video output (time spent for video output should get a major decrease with xserver upgrade) and the number of dropped frames if any (lower number of dropped frames is naturally better).

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

wow, updated kernel is much faster! I've tested with the latest r16 of mplayer. 30 sec benchmark on a clip i converted 480x288 20 fps thereabouts with no dropped frames. Pretty smooth!

800x480 is not good... :)

but 640x384 is not bad. I downloaded 1040p Fantastic4 trailer from Apple.com, then used Media Converter 1.43 to convert using N800 LVery High Quality (640x384) (as the settings that I added to Resolutions.txt) 24 fps @ 512 kbps video and 32 for audio. I also ticked Optimize for fullscreen, High Quality 2 pass and Enhance Colour. The file was then transferred over to the N800. Here's the benchmark results for 60 secs test.

Re: MPlayer which version is suitable
 

Test #1 - Doom Trailer

Stock xserver - 30 second benchmark
Patched xserver - 30 second benchmark